The present invention relates to a new and distinct strain of Fuji apple tree which is referred to by the varietal name `Snyder`.
Five adjacent trees of this variety were discovered by me in the summer of 1994 in a block of `BC 2` Fuji apple trees (unpatented). These trees had been grafted on `Malling 26` (`M26`) rootstock (unpatented) and were growing in a cultivated area of a nursey in Quincy, Wash. I noticed that these trees of my new variety were distinctly different in appearance (smaller in size) from the adjacent `BC2` Fuji trees. The trees of my new variety were tagged and dug in October, 1994, and they were placed in storage until Spring, 1995, when they were planted with other selected strains of Fuji apple trees in a test orchard at Orondo, Wash. First fruiting of these trees of my new variety occurred in 1997, which showed that fruit from the trees of my new variety showed heavy striping, full coloration, and distinct differences from the fruits of standard Fuji (unpatented), `BC2` Fuji (unpatented), `Akisaka Spur` Fuji (unpatented), `Nagafu 6` Fuji (unpatented, `Nagafu 12` Fuji (unpatented), `Myra` Fuji (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 9,645), and `TAC 114` Fuji (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 8,8032). Based upon my observations of these initial five trees and of asexually propagated progeny, I have concluded that the `Snyder` variety is a new and distinct Fuji cultivar. I have also concluded that my new variety must have developed as a limb mutation of `BC 2`, and that a single mutated budstick produced the five trees of my variety which were originally found at Quincy, Wash.
My new variety has been observed to be of a semi-spur nature. The blooms, limb characteristics, and the size and color of the leaves of the new `Snyder` Fuji strain are identical to `BC 2` Fuji insofar as I have been able to observe.